Music as Culture - Andrew Dubber

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Graphic recording of the session at http://www.flickr.com/photos/frauleinschiller/sets/72157622386216874/
Visual map of the session at http://thisislike.com/andrew-dubber-person/about

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Rapport by Herwig /// herwigkopp@kirtag.net /// kirtag.net /// Akademie des Neuen

SHORT BIO
Andrew Dubber born in New Zealand / Birmingham School of Media, Birmingham City University
Founding member of the Interactives Cultures Research Center
Co-founder of Music Think Tank
Author of New Music Strategies

ABOUT THE IDEA OF BECOMING A MUSICIAN
Nobody told you in school to become a musician.
It is not the greatest business idea in the world to become a rock band or pop singer...

ABOUT MUSIC IN SPACE
Voyager´s gold record sent out into space. The final frontier for music.

Music represents mankind, but Bach got excluded - for copyright reasons the aliens are not allowed to hear the Beatles.

What does music mean? This is what we are, where we come from, culture is also "Schlager".
Music is identity as part of what we are.

ABOUT LOCALISM
What does it mean to be a "New Zealander"? Music from New Zealanders for New Zealanders.
First it was: Play the American stuff, that´s what the people like. Then it got kind of compulsory to give New Zealand music a certain amount of airtime. This kind of posture raised a the percentage of 2% airtime to 20%! The Radiostations started a battling who is playing MORE New Zealand Music. It got that local, that there were even governmental movements to support international music again.

Benefits: Songs of different accents and rich references to local popular culture. Integrated bands in everyday life & culture. Strong support from communities.

If you understand Music just as business, you fail. Understand it as culture, you win.
But culture shifts & Music should be understood as Culture.
An attitude for loving local music. E.g. From people in Berlin, for people in Berlin.
Not "German Music" as a genre, the town is.

If a contemporary band from Birmingham is successful, the have moved to London. The do not produce something for the area no more. Cultural localism.

People want to be around cool stuff happening.
Dubber is promoting culture first, then the business reasons.
Supporting local music. Where is the organization for that?

Tagging everything form the area as from the area. Is music really international. It is not just technology, it´s people talking to each other. Mostly the people physically around enforcing connection already established. They shape how e socialize. People who are fans gather. Music is still scene driven. Scences are usually local. It´s hard to think of having a completely non geographically constrained music scene.

ABOUT COPYING
The Alexandrian Library, copying monks. Distributed information saved part of it. Human culture is based on copying. Approx. 95% form the Alexandrian Library lost.

Major Plato works got lost. It is a bit of a shame.
The point is: We are doing it again.

Cultiure is important, culture is fragile.
Is there a thing like an "original work". We cling to the idea, that there is an original work.

Shakespear did not invent the English language.
He used stories and concepts already there.

ABOUT MEANING
Music is creative meaning. Meaning is about culture. Not about what the writer/author was thinking about. Billie Hollyday used for coffee commercials. David Lynche´s Usage of "Mr. Sandman" in Blue Velvet - it got another meaning in a different context.

ABOUT TECHNIQUES & TOOLS
Technology is not culture by itself. It is not an external force, it does not "happen" to us. Technology is not shaping us, we shape our tools. T. is expanding capacity of conversation.

It´s just human beings talking to each other.

Money for music is always coming out of culture. Re-learning culture. The main means of distribution was paper before the invention of music recording. Or hearing a musical live performance. Consuming music is not just FINDING / BUYING / LISTENING
BUT MUCH MORE like organising, dancing, sharing, etc.

ABOUT IMPORTANCE
Who tells us what is important. Politicians? GEMA?
Music is ours. This is our business. Artists coalition.
Music isn´t theirs, it´s ours.

Music makes money. Copyright is really important.
Musicians should be rewarded for the commercial exploitation of their music.
BUT:
Copyright - don´t treat is as a right, but as an OPPORTUNITY. It´s not about: "Because I am an artist, I should get paid."
No.
People have to want it.

"To make money BECAUSE OF the music not FROM the music."

A. Dubber distributed 300.000 free copies of a book. Zero cent income from it,
BUT:
"I am not getting paid for the book, I am getting paid for what does the book, paid to do seminars, journeys, lectures, etc."

Books following books, a track is following a track.
It is all a conversation.

ABOUT "MAKING A LIVING"
Should people work for free, just for the opportunity?
Exploiting themselves for fame and Attention?

"There are 183 ways of making money because of music."

It´s not the only way to make money in performing live. The key to it is to risk something.
See it as a small firm, if you want to be successful economicly.

BUT:
If you are shit you won´t make money.

"The first thing you have to be is "FUCKING AMAZING.
Otherwise you won´t make money."

But the question is: Who judges that someone is "fucking amazing"?

"If you are not there, you don´t deserve to make money. You start in being remarkable."

ABOUT LOST CULTURAL GOODS
95% of the music the major labels ever released is not available for sale.
They are in magnetic tapes, etc. stored by big record companies.
Losing the master tapes means loosing the music as in 1983.
Some Records simply do not longer exists.
And-we don´t know what we miss.

Andrew Dubber´s book "Deleting Music" stresses these facts.

Music as culture to be lobbied. Preserving music is a major agenda. Like wikipedia. Encouraging the people who own and keep the recordings.
Music shouldn´t just be property, it should be ours.

ANDREW DUBBER´s DEMANDS (parts):

Strong fair use and rights
Assume permission rights for Orphan works.
Planing a 1000 years+ of storing and preserving. Distribute it, not centralise it.
Even though: a Central Institute with a database of which music is and WAS there.

Most of the music should be public domain.

Starting an NGO for that? Maybe there will be people doing that...

Non-commercial use excluded, but if you wouldn´t
Other people should be allowed to make money, by distributing culture.

"If you want to be famous you have to understand that you buy a lottery business, the second thing is being 10 years on a bus."

1:10 success ratio for signed artists concerning the industry which promotes artists..

ABOUT SUCCESS
"Success" is 50.000 pound a year, a car, a house. Mean success, aim to something which is attainable. And far more sustainable than to become a popstar.

Generate value, then people will tend to give you money.

QUESTIONS RAISED:
1. Could you explain again why music is conversation, not just a silent product.
2. If music is culture, culture is about conversation, how do you get sustainably into the conversation. Within a billion voices, who is gonna be heard?
3. How to make a "normal" living out of being a musician?

AUDIENCE ARGUMENTS:
People are not checking where can I buy it, they check where do i get it for free.
Let´s talk about not loosing money first. you are in debt at the moment you walk into a record label.